If he succeeded, Gus Kraatz would have been seen waving in the homecoming parade on an old World War II trailer hooked to a 1998 Grand Cherokee Jeep, amid a sea of open-top Corvettes. Those who saw him will know the Jeep is his family’s prized car, the Kraatzquatsch—which, apart from having a fantastic name, is notoriously difficult to drive. Despite some potential issues, Kraatz was not worried about who would drive.
“It would be either my dad or Frida,” Kraatz said. “I’d find someone.”
At CHS, Kraatz is a very enthusiastic member of the Gardening Club, while outside of school, he is a captain of both the cross-country and track teams. He joined track in freshman year and cross-country right after. One can often see Kraatz running around Claremont, and when asked to name his favorite memory, he described all of the various meets he had been to — in particular, Mt. SAC and Woodbridge, two of the biggest cross-country meets in Southern California.
Kraatz has a range of hobbies in his free time, including playing the guitar, mountaineering, and working on the Kraatzquatsch. Last year, he and his friend Simon Rockwell climbed Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the connected 48 states of the US, which has an elevation of 14,505 feet. When he’s not climbing mountains, he often heads to nearby junkyards to find parts for his car. Kraatz is also well known for his love of Elliott Smith, even ranking in the top 100 listeners of Elliott Smith and playing the artist’s songs frequently on his guitar.
In the future, Kraatz is hoping to study engineering at Colorado School of Mines.
“I’d love to shout out Frida, because she basically orchestrated my nomination,” Kraatz said. “Also, Heidi Dempsey, because I’m taking her to homecoming, and then a bunch of my friends, especially Leo Raphael, Elliot Souza, and Avan Bisono. Having those relationships with my friends that I can value is really important to me.”
